WASHINGTON, Dec 9 — Kawhi Leonard scored 34 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, Paul George added 27 points, and the visiting Los Angeles Clippers pushed past the Washington Wizards with a dominant fourth quarter to win, 135-119, yesterday at Capital One Arena.
Leonard and George paced the Clippers with 36 first-half points in an opening 24 minutes where Los Angeles struggled defensively. Coming off a 119-91 loss Friday in the first leg of a six-game road swing, the Clippers appeared headed for another tough night when they gave up 39 points in the second quarter.
But with a big second half from Montrezl Harrell off the bench, who finished with 20 points, helped spark the second-half advantage.
Leonard played an outstanding all-around game, shooting 12-of-18 from the floor and, in addition to his own scoring contributions, dishing five assists. George also distributed the ball well with six assists, matching Lou Williams and Washington’s Chris Chiozza for the game-high total.
Twenty-seven of Los Angeles’ 50 made field goals came off of assists. That effective ball movement powered the Clippers to a 52.1-per cent shooting night.
Williams scored 18 points off the bench.
The Washington bench actually outscored Los Angeles’, despite the effective performances from Harrell and Williams. Davis Bertans led the Wizards with 25 points, while Troy Brown Jr added 22.
Their combined 47 led the 61-point contribution from Washington’s reserves. However, the play of the bench was necessary with Isaac Bonga going scoreless and Moritz Wagner scoring just seven in the Washington starting five.
Wizards leading scorer Bradley Beal, who came in averaging just below 29 points per game, finished with 20 points on 5-of-18 shooting.
Los Angeles focused much of its defensive effort on the All-Star guard Beal. The Clippers also harassed rookie forward Rui Hachimura effectively. He finished with 17 points but shot just 5-of-14 from the floor and posted a game-low negative-34 plus-minus rating. — Reuters
